Old tech revived from the ground up

EVERYTHING FROM THE 1970S and ’80s is in vogue again, from Lamborghini reviving the Countach, to Nissan’s unashamedly retro design for the new Z. It seems the world’s racing fraternity aren’t immune either, with ground-effect designs returning next year.

But instead of simply rehashing old systems, motorsport has found ways to innovate on the early rudimentary aerodynamic thinking of old. Ground effect development ended in Formula 1 in 1982 when the technology was outlawed, and while Group C sportscars picked up the baton for a period, the era of huge underfloor aerodynamics was largely short lived. For nearly three decades